I tend to think that multi-media exhibitions rarely tap into the potential of this art form as a participatory medium. Los Angeles-born Gabriel Barcia-Colombo's latest works, currently on view at BlueBox's pop up gallery in the Roger Smith Hotel, prove me wrong.

The exhibition, titled "Nobody Leaves, Everybody Goes," and curated by Karen Bookatz and Julia Kaganskiy, includes ten digital sculptures that play upon this exigency in our culture to chronicle, preserve, and wax nostalgic, an idea which Barcia-Colombo renders visually by “collecting” human beings (alongside cultural archetypes) as scientific specimens. He repurposes everyday objects like blenders, suitcases, and cans of Spam® into venues for projecting and inserting videos of people.

We love how uncomfortable one feels upon interacting with these objects which trigger the little creatures trapped inside to react vividly. We love his nod to Duchamp's Ready-Mades, and the video spectacles of Aernout Mik. Above all, we love the fact that these interactive, multi-media artworks are clever little low tech "video sculptures" yet they question our high tech, digital lives.

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: "Nobody Leaves, Everybody Goes"
March 11, 2010 from 7 pm - 9 pm, The Starlight Room at The Roger Smith Hotel
501 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10017
on view through March 20th. 2010